Moderation policy

The Forest Research Dialogue site gives staff and other invitees the opportunity to participate in online conversations by posting ideas and comments around a set theme or challenge. All comments and ideas are viewable to colleagues in Forest Research and in some cases staff from external organisations. This site therefore operates a moderation policy to ensure that all contributions are relevant and presented in an appropriate manner.

All opinions and contributions are welcome and this moderation policy is not about censoring your views – we invite open participation and diverse viewpoints. However, if an idea or comment does not adhere to the following guidelines then we may remove it:

• Please don’t post ideas, comments or messages that are unrelated to the theme or challenge. Ideas should be relevant and on-topic. The challenge description will sets out the objectives and criteria that ideas need to meet.

• Ideas should be well-written and reasonably concise. Avoid jargon terms, acronyms or other references that would not be clear to readers outside your work area.

• Ideas should not duplicative or substantially duplicative postings by the same person or entity.

• Respect other people. All opinions and contributions are welcome, but comments that are in any way offensive to others will be removed.

Moderation is performed by Forest Research who will be responsible for moderation in accordance with the terms set out on this page. Moderators reserve the right to remove posts which do not conform to the Moderation policy. We deeply value your time and input, and our desire is to remove as few posts as possible while ensuring that a focused, constructive discussion takes place.

This moderation policy is subject to change to address additional matters as may be warranted. If you have a complaint about an item of user-generated content on this site, or feel that your own content was removed in error, please contact us.